Recycling Red Riding Hood examines contemporary retellings of the world's best-known fairy tale in a large corpus of international children's texts, many of which have never been translated into English. The book addresses a new area in children's literary theory and criticism: intertextuality and the retold story. It examines narrative techniques, such as hybrid genres and metaliterary play, that have rarely been applied to children's literature.

Sandra Beckett's book explores the contemporary retelling of the Red Riding Hood tale in Western children's literature.